If You Are Lonely and You Know It (Currency)
Gordon Schulmeister is the sort of man who tends his garden, keeps his bees, and stays out of trouble. He's polite to a fault, invisible by design, and entirely without the social currency that might earn him a warmer welcome in his younger, trendier, gentrified Oakland neighbourhood. People tolerate him. Just about. Then one small misstep changes everything. Caught between a prickly landlord, the simmering tensions of a pandemic, and the unexpected responsibility of minding a rather intimidating pit bull, Gordon suddenly feels every unfriendly glance more sharply than before. Something, it seems, will have to give. Yiyun Li, a PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author, tells this story with the kind of quiet precision that makes ordinary lives feel genuinely affecting. It's a short read, easily finished in a single sitting, yet it lingers. The piece forms part of Currency, a growing anthology of stories circling themes of class, wealth, rivalry, and unravelling. Think of it as a small deposit that earns more than you'd expect.
- Author: Yiyun Li
- Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
- Genre: Short Stories
- ISBN: 978-1542027373
- Pages: 28 pages